Using factor analysis in beef cattle breeding

¹ Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Rostov region, Krasnoarmeyskaya St., 33, Rostov-on-Don, 344010, Russia
² Don State Technical University, sq. Gagarina, 1, Rostov-on-Don, 344010, Russia
³ The Volga region research institute of manufacture and processing of meat-and-milk products, Rokossovsky St., 6, Volgograd, 400131, Russia
⁴ Don State Agrarian University, o. Persianovsky, 346493, Russia

^* Corresponding author: zelenkovalex@rambler.ru

Abstract

Studies of the structure of the interaction of signs with the help of factor analysis is based on the idea of the complex nature of the phenomenon being studied, expressed in the interdependence of individual signs, determined by “internal” hidden causes, forming the specifics of a property, quality. We used the factor analysis method to study the producers’ assessments of the quality of the offspring and to test their bullsons for their own productivity of the Kalmyk and Hereford cattle breeds. The analysis included material from the work of pedigree reproducers and plants in the Kalmyk and Hereford breeds of the Rostov Region. The total number of animals included in the treatment was 96 manufacturing bulls and 272 sons bulls. As a result of the studies, the proposed breeding indices on one basis are quite suitable for the preliminary selection of bullcalves in commodity farms or in pedigree farmers for breeding beef cattle. In order to get a final assessment, we compiled new breeding indices, including two (live weight at 8 and 15 months, live weight at 15 months and average daily gain from 8 to 15 months), as well as three characteristics (live weight in 8, 15 months and average daily gain). These signs are objective, easy to account. According to the estimates obtained for individual bull-sons, it is possible by summing up the values of new factors to identify the bulls’ assessment of the quality of the offspring. Analysis of assessment materials is characterized by high reliability (P > 0.999).